Mike Maney (chapter President)
Mike Maney is the founder of maney:digital, where he advises companies on strategy and execution for engagement with non-traditional influencers. He was previously head of influencer management at Alcatel-Lucent. The role wiped the traditional marketing and communications slate clean, reinventing the perennially separate disciplines into a blended role that combined the best facets of marketing, public relations, analyst relations, internal communications, community management and business development to communicate Alcatel-Lucent’s presence in new markets and among new influencers.
A corporate and agency veteran of more than two decades, Mike has led successful communications campaigns for Fortune 500 companies (Alcatel-Lucent, IBM, Unisys and AT&T), as well as the PR arms of some of the world's largest advertising agencies (Ogilvy, Grey and Saatchi). He has had the opportunity to work closely with the inventor of Unix, the father of the Internet and IBM's top internet visionary. Mike has had two programs nominated for the Holmes’ Report Gold Sabre award for business-to-business campaigns of the year (Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation) and won a coveted Telly Award for an executive communications video he co-wrote. He is a co-founder of Corporate Rebels United, a global network of protagonists working to make corporate cultures faster and more innovative.
You can follow Mike on Twitter (@the_spinmd) or read more about him on his website (maneydigital.com)
Chuck Sacco (chapter Treasurer, fmr. chapter President)
Chuck is a technology entrepreneur, with a number of company and product launches under his belt. His most recent startup was the launch of PhindMe Mobile, which he co-founded, led, and sold to Movitas LLC. PhindMe was Chuck’s second startup, previously launching an enterprise technology consulting business. He grew the consulting and client development operations of that self-funded startup before the business was sold to what is now Infor.
With an MBA in technology management from Drexel University and a Beta Gamma Sigma honoree, Chuck has speaks and writes on mobile technologies and entrepreneurship, and is an adjunct faculty member at Drexel University's LeBow College of Business. Chuck teaches entrepreneurship there, and was trained at the prestigious Price-Babson Symposium on Entrepreneurship Education.
Chuck also is an elected director of the Drexel University Board of Governors, a board member and former President for Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic, and sits on the Neumann University Business School advisory council.
More at www.chucksacco.com or @chucksacco.
Fred Wilf (chapter Secretary)
Fred Wilf is an attorney who represents companies developing and using a vast array of software and hardware technologies, from the large-scale “enterprise” class of mainframe computers to smart phones and other palm-sized devices. Verticals include banking and finance, health care (including health care insurance and pharmaceuticals), wholesale and retail sales, warehousing and distribution of hard goods, utilities, cable television, books, audio/visual (including music) and games.
Fred speaks and writes extensively on topics involving technology and the law, including a continuing legal education seminar on Internet law, which he founded and has chaired annually since 1997, and seminars on cloud computing and ecommerce. He is currently updating and editing a legal treatise on computer software and services. Fred taught a course on Cyberlaw as an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School in Camden, New Jersey. Fred also serves as an arbitrator in technology and intellectual property disputes, including royalty disputes and disputes over general business and commercial agreements.
Fred has been practicing law since 1985, and was previously in small firms (including Elman Wilf & Fried) and big firms (Saul Ewing and Morgan Lewis & Bockius). Fred is a managing partner of Baer Crossey LLC (www.BaerCrossey.com), a technology, business and corporate law firm that provides big firm experience at boutique firm prices.
James A. Drobile, Jr. (chapter Co-Founder)
James Drobile is a senior business leader in the wireless telecommunication and technology industry. He has extensive business and management consulting experience and is a recognized strategy and process thought leader who has spent the past two decades driving complex and wide ranging business initiatives for client companies. James has deep and diverse experience in operations, process improvement, mergers and integrations, as well as launching new business start-ups. He has managed the strategic, business development and financial aspects of the business and is recognized for his ability to lead cross functional high-performing teams.
Mr. Drobile has consulted with several technology and telecommunications companies including Motorola, Iridium Satellite LLC and Lucent Technologies. Mr. Drobile’s background also includes strong performance improvement and process consultative experience with firms like American Management Systems (AMS) and Arthur Andersen Business Consulting. His consulting efforts have generated significant savings for companies through business and technology improvements. Earlier in his career, James served in financial and accounting roles with DuPont and RCA/General Electric.
James holds both a bachelor of science in accountancy and an MBA from Villanova University. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a past member of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), and is active with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Rick Rasansky (chapter Co-Founder)
Rick has over two decades of high-tech startup leadership and management experience. He has served as founder, c-level officer and a principal partner of public and private entities spanning software, telecom, financial and consumer services. Since founding one of the earliest SaaS companies which grew to over one million users in less than six months in 1999, to building mobile payment systems, Rick is considered an expert in viral marketing techniques. In addition to focusing on mobile and Internet technologies, his expertise spans payments, user authentication, and privacy, most specifically in the highly regulated financial services sector.
Currently, Rick is leading Yorn in redefining market research by using crowd-sourcing and social media to aggregate web and mobile users as panelists for any business, political cause, organization, or individual who has a need to obtain relevant feedback, trends, votes or opinions in near real-time and at low cost. Previously, Rick was a founder and CEO of Sapphire Mobile Systems, which was acquired just two years after the successful development of its patent pending, mobile payment infrastructure. Rick was also Chief Marketing Officer of TRM Corp, an operator of an international network of over 22,000 ATM terminals and CEO of eCal Corp, which he founded in 1997.
Mr. Rasansky is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, attended the Moore School of Engineering and served two years as an AVROC in the U.S. Navy. An invited speaker and panelist at numerous international conferences, Mr. Rasansky also serves on the boards of several start-ups, charitable, and industry organizations in addition to being actively involved in mentoring young entrepreneurs. Rick is also a patent holding inventor who resides outside of Philadelphia with his wife, three children and two dogs.
JP Finnell (chapter Co-Founder, former President)
JP Finnell is Head of Mobile Strategy for Services for SAP America, Inc. where he is making the market to establish SAP Mobile as the de-facto industry standard for enterprise mobile apps – extending its current position as the market leader in enterprise application software. Previously, JP consulted to enterprise, technology, and carrier clients as Managing Partner of Mobility Partners and as General Manager of Mobility Professional Services at Nokia. Residing in Philadelphia, JP played a founding role in Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic, one of 100+ chapters in the world’s leading mobile community. He is an advocate of entrepreneurial and grass roots approaches to economic development and served as an advisor to several technology start-ups and emerging growth companies in the Philadelphia area. JP’s research on collaboration and enterprise mobility has been published by GigaOM and he is a conference speaker at Mobilize, Net:Work, Mobile Enterprise Summit, CTIA, Gartner, Society for Information Management (SIM), Mobile Monday, RCR Wireless, and BizTech@Wharton. JP was a Fellow at the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies, where he received an MA from the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a BS from the Georgetown University.
Ron Braunfeld (Board member)
WHERE, Inc. is North America’s leading location media company. WHERE develops a range of location-based services, including mobile advertising as well as search and recommendation services. The award-winning, wildly popular WHERE local discovery service boasts a rapidly growing active user base of over 4 million. WHERE Ads™, the company’s widely successful hyper-local search & display mobile ad network, reaches over 50 million consumers in real-time with relevant content and advertising Prior to joining WHERE, Ron ran Business Development at MapQuest, where he was responsible for revenue and partnership opportunities in the wireless, print, and software businesses. Prior to MapQuest, Ron managed Business Development for eCal Corporation, where he brought in accounts including AT&T, CBS, Switchboard, ZDNet, Net2Phone, Disney. Ron has a BA from the University of New Hampshire and a MA from Temple University.
Charles "Chip" Cleary (Board member)
Leadership Outcomes, Inc., www.LeadershipOutcomes.com , a “C”-level Operating Management Support firm focused on scaling Mobile Internet & Managed Services businesses worldwide. The firm’s mission is operational in nature with Mr. Cleary reporting to the Board as CEO in a full-time or interim capacity, or supporting the CEO by assuming end-to-end accountability for Customer-facing people & resources and delivery of sustainable revenues and margins.
Since Leadership Outcomes’ founding in 2002, Mr. Cleary led PADCOM (now NetMotion Wireless), as President & CEO and the European LOB expansion of Arbinet into Mobile Number Portability utilizing Hosted and SaaS solutions. Prior positions include Sales Vice President for AT&T. Operating support engagements are ongoing at Compass Global, Inc., Software Synergy, Inc. and Mobile Attainment, LLC. Advisory Services are offered to LLR Partners and LaSalle University’s President. Mr. Cleary has a BA in Economics and an MBA in Marketing from LaSalle and is a U.S. Army Reserve Civil Affairs Officer (Ret.).
Dan Kelley (Board member)
Dan has over 15 years of experience as a seasoned technology architect in developing custom software solutions for a wide variety of industries, ranging from e-commerce to media. Dan currently serves as Chief Architect at Transmogrify, LLC, a company based in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania that specializes in the development of mobile web and native mobile applications for clients ranging from start-ups to fortune 500 companies. In this role, Dan blends his experience in architecture design and front-end usability to build amazing applications. Prior to working at Transmogrify, Dan was a Solution Director for the SOA practice at Anexinet. As Solution Director Dan helped manage the Service Oriented Architecture Practice and contributed to building the software for clients including, The New York Times, GSI Commerce, and SEI Investments.
Dan earned his MSE degree in Computer Science from Bucknell University, and also received his MS degree in Computer Science from Villanova University. Dan is a husband, and the father of two beautiful daughters. He is also an aging athlete who still enjoys playing lacrosse in his spare time.